Sen. Al Franken doesn’t suffer fools gladly. Instead he writes about simpletons like senators Ted Cruz and Tom Corbin and former senator Jeff Sessions in his new book “Al Franken, Giant of the Senate.”
Frankekn was interview by Prof. Lady Jacobs Friday night at the Ted Mann Theater on the Minneapolis campus. “Cruz is the guy who microwaves fish,” Franken said about the senator who annoys many people regardless of their political leanings.
SAD MESS, REPORT ON POVERTY
MINNEAPOLIS — In a forum Monday night at the University of Minnesota, the School of Public Affairs asked: is a left-right bargain on poverty possible? My answer: NO.
The evening was saved by Federal Board Chair MayKao Hang, the Amherst H. Wilder Foundation president and CEO. She graciously pointed out to Ron Haskins, Brookings Institution, and Robert Dour, American Enterprise Institute, that their two-year old report omitted any mention of racial discrimination. (Ms. Hang is Asian American.) Talk about ignoring the elephant in the living room!
Two of the whitest men on the planet, Haskins and Dour, pimped the “Opportunity, Responsibility and Security” report, to a large gathering in the Cowles Auditorium.
The usual platitudes about supporting early childhood education were voiced with the caveat that fears about our “national debt” precluded any progress. In fact, Haskins stated the obvious, that Congress “does not want to spend money on universal pre-school.”
None of what was aired Monday night by the Brookings and AEI representatives would pass muster as credible academic research anywhere on the planet. Also missing from this “study” is a mention of the concentration of wealth in this country and the educational needs of immigrant children.
Sixteen, mostly white guys, gathered to prepare the poverty report but only 15 signed off on the finished document. Other speakers were critical of the report but no one framed it as a patently offensive mess that wasn’t worthy of discussion.
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